Announcing The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition

Yes, the rumors are true: there will be a new CMOS in September! In the seven years since the 16th edition’s debut we’ve seen large shifts in the way we read, write, edit, and do research. The 17th edition will address these changes as well as incorporate many of the suggestions and queries we’ve received over the years.

Over the next few months here at the Press, we’ll be proofing and finalizing the new edition. Shop Talk will keep you posted on what’s new. We’ll also be sharing resources to help you make the transition from the 16th edition.

We announced the new edition at a trio of meetings this month: the London Book Fair, the American Copy Editors Society meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in Baltimore, Maryland. (We’ll have more about the ACES meeting in a forthcoming post.) Here are just a few changes in the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style that you may already have learned about in the buzz.

E-mail will become email (no hyphen).

Internet will become internet (lowercased).

Chapter 5, on grammar and usage, will contain more than thirty new sections on syntax.

The use of ibid. for repeated citations will no longer be preferred.

The use of singular they in place of a generic he or she is not recommended for formal prose; use of the singular they as a preferred personal pronoun (that is, when a specific person asks to be referred to as they) is accepted in formal writing. [Update 4.3.17: See “Chicago Style for the Singular They” for a more complete explanation.]

Subscribers to CMOS Online will automatically have access to the full contents of both the 17th and 16th editions, but the 15th edition of CMOS Online will no longer be supported.

If you’d like to preorder the hardcover edition, you can do so at the University of Chicago Press website. CMOS Online subscribers will receive the new online edition automatically in September.